


A Coin for a Beggar

by snufflesfoot



Series: Drabbles (aka My Tears) [14]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Post Season 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 05:37:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3369785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snufflesfoot/pseuds/snufflesfoot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Is this how Persephone felt when summer came?<br/>Or, the one where Merlin makes himself immortal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Coin for a Beggar

it's like this:

you cry till you can't, can't feel a thing for weeks. then you leave. you have matters to settle.

 

//

 

you bleed too easily. always have. you've almost died one too many times for it to be safe, for you to know you won't again, for real this time. so you make sure it doesn't, can't happen. you make sure you can wait for him. he needs you to make sure. he needs you to -

he needs you.

you travel to whatever caves you have to, all the corners of the earth, crooks and niches too, to make your power more powerful, to make time bow down to you and death himself bend to your will. no matter the cost. no matter the pain.

 

//

 

the skies get grayer with each passing century and it feels like you'll never be warm again. you know there's no point in seeking friends. so you don't.

you're so alone it's crippling, twisting, screaming inside your head.

but only ever on the inside.

 

//

 

you feel like you're burning beneath the hazy sun, but you're numb at the same time, and you laugh out loud for the sheer absurdness of it all.

you walk on. what else can you do?

you remember. all of it, pounding in your ears, his whispers, his laughs, his hands, his eyes.

you walk on.

 

//

 

there's a night. you remember it well. a night where you tested your resilience for death. the night was red and black with flashes of gold, which you reached out for. but then there was morning too.

you walk on.

 

//

 

your beard reaches your knees now and you actually look like how they painted you in the books. you try to laugh, but you can't.

 

//

 

when you hear it, you don't turn. you've heard it far too many times to be fooled again.

but -

but. it is.

you haven't heard your name spoken like that in millennium, and your head swims.

 

//

 

it's like this:

when you see him, you run. you can't but you do anyway. you run and you cling to him and you breathe.

he clings back and you smile.


End file.
